Rick Simpson
Great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul. It is the inspiration of the artist’s knowledge and inspiration that breathes life into ink, paper and other media. Without it, art is pure decoration.
To Quote Francis Bacon: “Find subjects that really absorb you. Without a subject that eats into you, you automatically go into decoration. The greatest art always returns you to the vulnerability of the human situation. Our greatest obsession is with ourselves. I’ve done a lot of self-portraits.”
That is the essence of my own artwork. I create primarily figurative images that reflect my own thoughts.
My imagery comes from deeply personal and cultural experiences I’ve had throughout my life. I draw from my subconscious to express myself in dreamlike images emerging from a stream of consciousness. For me, this process is purely intuitive and not planned in advance. My chosen genre is Fantastic Realism, an Art Movement established in Vienna in 1946. It involves imagery that combines the painterly techniques of the Old Masters’ realism with religious and esoteric symbolism and metaphors. The group consisted of Arik Brauer, Ernst Fuchs, Rudolf Hausner, Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmden.
My artwork is greatly influenced by a 12-year residence in Europe, where I absorbed artistic genres from contemporary abstract expressionism to Old Masters. I have lived in eight different countries with a wide variety of cultures. My many years of living and traveling in the Middle East and Asia expanded my exposure to international art movements and influence my artistic vision. Although I received a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking, I have concentrated in digital painting techniques for more than 25 years. I enjoy working with a medium that has virtually no limitations other than my own imagination.